Both Portland and Vancouver occasionally fret about disabled parking. A recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle put things in perspective there — and, perhaps, here. San Francisco has 28,000 metered parking places and has issued 60,750 placards allowing free, unlimited parking in metered spaces. Throw in the surrounding eight counties in the Bay area and you add an additional 453,830 placards.
“It has reached the point,” the story reported, “where even disabled advocates are recommending the unthinkable — taking away the free pass and ordering those with disabled placards, even the severely handicapped, to pay to park.”
Thirty-five states now charge for disabled parking; studies have shown that enforcement doesn’t work to keep out cheaters and neither does monitoring the scores of medical professionals who can authorize placards. When Philadelphia went to paid parking, placard use went from 65 percent of available spaces to 2 percent. Obviously, there is a lot more support for cracking down than I can quote here.
Is it possible that our practices are as messed up as San Francisco’s?
George Cheek
Camas
